


Caged

by Officer_Jennie



Series: BadThingsHappenBingo [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M, dokuzetsu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 10:07:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20487137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Officer_Jennie/pseuds/Officer_Jennie
Summary: This is where they always wanted you,his mind told him.How they always envisioned you. Nothing more than a beast that had to be contained.





	Caged

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Locked in a cage

The cell was cramped. Madara paced from wall to wall, to the wooden bars that kept him there and back. The braces on his wrists and ankles that drained his chakra to nothing itched, his jaw sore from clenching and grinding his teeth.

Punching the walls had gotten him no where. Without his chakra, no amount of natural strength could get him through the wood either, the beams mending themselves faster than he could claw or shake through them.

He was trapped. Caged. Left like an animal to pace and pace and pace, as if he meant nothing in comparison to those who walked free just above his head.

With a jerk of his head, he sneered over at the door just visible in the dim light of his prison. _This is where they always wanted you_, his mind told him. _How they always envisioned you. Nothing more than a beast that had to be contained_.

Once, he didn’t believe that to be true. But there was little denying it when he was here, alone, in the dark, kept by those he was meant to trust.

There was no way to feel his approach. With his sensing gone and the walls sound proof, no noise escaping either way, Madara was left with no way to anticipate his betrayer. It meant his back was turned to the door when it opened, making him whip around the moment he heard the hinges creaking, baring his teeth at the man who had the audacity to look worn and tired around him.

As if Madara should pity him. _He betrayed every ounce of trust you had in him, and now tries to manipulate you again_. Hands clenched so tight his nails bit into his skin, Madara stalked over to the wooden bars that held him, slamming his fists against them as he had so many times before.

“Madara…”

His name sounded like poison. Stung and stuck in his heart as a remembrance of all the times it had been whispered in his ear like honey and hot wine, accompanied by a searing touch that satisfied and was never enough in equal measure. Times he could recall with perfect clarity if only he could activate his sharingan for an instant; it was both a gift and a curse that he couldn’t then, losing the moments as they drifted to the back of his memory, replaced by the severe if dragging form of the man who approached him then.

“Come to mock me further, Senju?” _It__’s all he wanted with you now, after all. Just to watch you break further, watch and wait for you to give in and plead for your freedom_. Not that Madara would ever give him the satisfaction. Weeks he’d been down here, possibly even months, and he hadn’t so much as given him a single tear.

That was a pretty lie Madara loved telling himself. That the first few days hadn’t happened. That he hadn’t begged and screamed for his husband to let him go.

_Betrayer. It__’s what he always wanted. He tricks and lies in wait until you’re weak with love and passion_.

“I would never mock you, Madara. You know that.” His tone deceivingly sincere, words so unlike the truth Madara knew now. But Hashirama had always been good at playing innocent, playing the better of them, coming to stand just out of reach in front of the wooden cell he’d made for his captive.

“Then what do you want? To see me beg? Plead to be released?” He spat his anger even as his heart clenched, nails digging into the wood that kept them separated.

Hashirama wavered for a moment, his eyes cutting to the side and away from the one before him. But the second of hesitation passed and he was stepping forward, one hand resting just above where Madara’s clawed angrily into the bars of his cell. “I want you to be well. To be yourself again. You know something is wrong - I can tell you do. This isn’t you.”

“How can you say there’s something wrong with me? You’re the one who trapped me here - does Izuna even know you’ve imprisoned me?”

For the second time, Hashirama wavered. Guilt had him chewing his lower lip, misty brown eyes cast downward towards the floor. “He wouldn’t have listened.”

_Keeping secrets, telling lies. It_ _’s all he’s ever done._

“He thinks me dead, doesn’t he?”

Instead of responding, Hashirama leaned in closer, resting his forehead in between two of the bars to loom over Madara. “I didn’t have a choice, koi. You changed. It’s not your fault - I know it isn’t - but you were dangerous! And I know if you could just see what it’s done to you, you’d never want to let it win.”

_A wolf, a fox. His words mean nothing. Just the tricks of a silver-tongued traitor_.

“Let what win?” _Don__’t listen to his lies; he’ll poison your mind. Just as he has everyone else’s - poisoned against you, meant to trap and keep you alone_.

“I don’t know what it is. Not even Tobirama does.” A warm hand met Madara’s cheek, the pad of a rough thumb stroking him in such a familiar and soft fashion that he didn’t have it in him to shake it off, to step back and away from the touch. “Madara, I don’t want to keep you here. I want you to come home. But it has to be you, not whatever it’s turned you into.”

_His words mean nothing. He holds the key; if he wanted you free, you would be free_.

Madara leaned ever so slightly into the touch, his grip on the bars loosening. “I…want to go home, Hashirama.”

“Anata…” With his free arm, Hashirama pulled Madara closer, letting their foreheads rest together as best they could. “I promise, I’ll fix this. I’ll help you. All I need is a bit more time.”

_He__’ll never let you go. He’s right there, and thinks you weak and helpless. Kill him for his insolence_.

Madara squeezed his arms through the bars and pulled his husband closer, wanting nothing more at that moment than to feel the calming warmth that came from him. “I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

_Don_ _’t let him slip away like Izuna did. Strangle him, rip out his throat, kill him!_

“I don’t either, but it’s going to be okay. I promise.”

_Kill him! Take your freedom and cut them all down like the scum they are!_

Madara buried himself as close as he could to the love of his life, tired from fighting the voice that kept screaming in his mind. “Please hurry.” He felt Hashirama nod and left the room to the quiet, the only sound the voice still demanding he slaughter the village and his family along with it ringing in his thoughts - as it had for so many months he’d lost track of what peace truly was.

**Author's Note:**

> _“The walls that caged me were not of this world, but were within my mind.”_  
― J.D. Stroube, Caged in Spirit


End file.
